With the World Cup having been jointly hosted by Japan and Korea in 2002, it was very inconvenient for US soccer fans to follow the matches during the night. Although millions of people watched the live and time-shifted broadcasts of the tournament four years ago, the scheduling of the games did not lend itself to huge audiences being drawn in the US.
Initiative’s latest ViewerTrack shows that, with the World Cup being held in Germany this year, US audiences are booming on the back of much better scheduling this time round. With matches being broadcast live throughout the day, average audiences have more than doubled compared with World Cup 2002. Over the first 29 matches of this year’s tournament, average program audiences across live and time-shifted broadcasts are 4.0 million, up from 2.0 million in 2002. Thanks to a change in the Nielsen measurement of Univision, all US viewers of that network can now be counted. This expands the sample beyond the Hispanics only. The National Nielsen projections show US audiences now nearly as large as those in the UK, where average program audiences per match are only slightly higher, at 4.3 million people. This is in spite of the US team failing to win a match in World Cup 2006, whereas they reached the quarter-finals in 2002.
While the Hispanic market accounts for a sizeable share of soccer viewing in the US, it is also catching on among the broader population. Data on which team’s matches are most watched reflects this. In 2002, Mexico’s matches were most watched among the US population, with the US’s own matches only second most popular. This time, Brazil’s matches are most popular, with large audiences for their games split across both ABC / ESPN and Univision.
Soccer is also catching on among women. In 2002, women accounted for only 32 per cent of the total TV audience. That share has now risen to 35 per cent.
Another interesting Initiative Blog for which I thank Akison G. Ghana put out the USA on the 22nd June last but that game was only shown in the UK on a BBC InterActive Option which for once worked but still would have substantially lowered the BBC average for the UK. And we [probably like most other 10 Mb Broadband customers] did not even bother to access the BBC Broadband Option.
Brazil have just beaten Ghana 3-0 but our CAP2 system was able to factor back in that Adriano was clearly Offside when scoring at 45m+14s [so at the end of the First Half]. So overall Brazil "earned 3.55 Goals from 19 Scoring Opportunities to average 0.22 Goal" after Three 1H attempts were each Discarded as each not worth 0.043 [1/24th] Goal. Whereas Ghana "earned 1.7 Goals from Twenty Three Scoring Opportunities to average an unacceptable 0.09 Goal" after Four were Discarded. So Brazil actually "deserved to Win by a 1.85 Goal Margin of Victory" or -1.15 Goal less than the Actual 3-0 score Line.
But a simple Time Out to get the 4th [5th] Match Official to review the SloMo of Adriano's Goal could and should have wiped it out within say a 90 Second time slot. And if Brazil wants to Win the 2006 World Cup outright it should be getting its average up to 0.33 Goal or One in Three Scoring Opportunities.
Posted by: Bob Copeman | 27 June 2006 at 06:27 PM
Glad to see that the Americans are more and more interested in soccer.
I saw that the number of US players was growing especially in the schools. That is really cool to see the USA joining the rest of the world in this big party that is soccer.
So I sure this popular sport will rise in the near future and so, soccer business will follows this trend. Advertisers will be more and more to support and to sponsorise soccer. They will quickly understand how important it is to integrate it within a global communication strategy.
I bet that the number of American firms will be much more important during the 2014 World Cup (which will probably take place in your continent - Brazil) !
It will be a uge opportunity to attract more americans viewers because of the same time zones of broadcasting.
More Americans watching soccer on TV in 2014... So More advertisers around this major international event. But an efficient strategy of communication around soccer must start now. Not only the 1st day of the 2010/2014 tournaments.
Guys, If you are looking for a soccer marketing expert to help you to set up a efficient communication strategy... do not hesitate to contact me. I'm your man !
-MAX from Paris-
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